Mexico weekly ledger., 1887-01-20
A DIANiOND STORY.
The Clever Work Now Accomplished by
Dishonest Lapidaries.

A well known diamond dealer, Who
has become an expert from many years
handling of precious stones, was near
ly taken in a few days ago by 4 shrewd
diamond shark, whose new scheme de-
serves attention, rs it is likely to be at
tempted in some other quarter. The
dodge consists in trying to palm off n
cleverly 'rdoctored'' diamond as Il very
valuable stone and III telling 4 plausible
and picturesque story to give it u
tenance.
The short, stout man. .ith a grizzled,
gray mustachc, vino tried 10 yictimize
the jeweler in question. brought TO him
an elegant-looking solitaire ring. pur-
porting to contain a diamond of unusual
size and brilliancv. To the eye even
of the expert the stone looked all right,
and the man tried hard 10 make q bar
gain with him ut once, without pro-
ceeding any further. AS it looked, the
diamond was easily worth 9200, aud
the man, vino told 4 tale of dire neces-
sitv, offered to sell it for t100.
The story of the diamond as told by
the man. who gave the name of Charles
HARDWOOD, was that it belonged origin
ally TO the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.
In December 1871, when the Grand
Duke, who was young and handsome,
attended the reception given i'll his
honor in the Academy of Music, an
episode occurred that attracted consid'
cradle attention at the time and has
been much talked of since.
Some time after the promenade, and
when everything was in motion, the at.
IGNITION rE 4f,a hrt-a who b,I rrnra an
stairs with VT of the gentleman of the
committee, was attracted by n lady in
one of the corner rows of curtained
balcony boxes. There were but two
ladies in the box. one Of them an elder
ly lady and the other a tall, beautiful
young woman, about 20 years of age.
who had remarkably fine eyes, which
could not fail to De noticed.
The Grand Duke expressed q desire tc
be introduced, which was soon gratified
and after standing for a few moment:
i'll front of the box he asked permission
to 90 inside. In a little while he asked
the lady to &c on the promenade, ant
otherwise showed his pleasure at meet
ing her. but she mildly and persistent,
refused.
As he rose to go, the Duke. holding
her hand 4 moment and slipping from
one of his fingers a diamond ring. pre-
scented it TO her and asked her to keeT
it as a souvenir of the occasion. Tn
lady did so, and kept it for seyera
years, until at last she fell INTO reduces
circumstance and determined to ge
rid of the ring in spite of its associa
tons.
Such, in substance, are the facts of al
occurrence upon which the man will
the diamond to sell told his story. II
represented that the diamond he ha'
was the n given to this lady, and b
endeavored very clearly to trace its his
tory to her. The ieweler, however. in
sisted upon removing the stone from til
setting TO examine it, and this the ma.
allowed him to do.
The mans willingness to do this YER
nearly threw the jeweler off his guar
at the last moment, especially as upo
removing the stone he could see nothin
wrong with it. Taking up a microscope
however. he was able to detect, with
close scrutiny, a slight variation in tn
quality and texture of the stone betwee
the middle portions and the ends.
Then he held the stone near q lamp
and in a few minutes the whole natur
of the ingenious frand dawned upo
him. A small real diamond of inferio
quality formed the top and bottom, an
a fine piece Of crystal had been sand
wiched between them, adding nearl
ten times TO the value of the stone.
had been so c~leverly and ~ingeniousl
put together with Il colorless cemel
that it was almost beyond the power {
detection. The man. of course, expires
ed surprise. and asserted that the dis
mond was just as he received it.-1tt
Bits.